Introduction
When tribes go to war, the winner of the conflict takes bounty from the conquered lands as riches for their home. We have moved on a little bit since that time. Today quite often when someone goes to war, captured vehicles and weaponry are taken home for display. One such war was the first Gulf war, which saw the armies of many countries form a coalition in order to remove Iraq from Kuwait and reduce their ability to fight. AK Interactive under the Abteilung 502 have released this title, looking at the Iraqi hardware captured by the US and British forces during the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
Review
This offering from AK Interactive is a soft backed book, with a substantial fold out cover protecting 131 pages of good quality glossy paper. The author of this release is Jean -Jacques Labrot. The book begins with an introduction, written purely in English which looks at the recent conflicts in which Iraq was involved, and takes you through the war fought by the allies against Iraq, while removing them from Kuwait. The written detail provided here is minimal, as the purpose of this titles to give you a visual look at some of the Iraqi hardware captured intact by British and American forces.
The amount of equipment captured and displayed in just one depot, is mind-boggling. Everything from soft skinned trucks, to artillery guns, tanks and even armoured recovery vehicles abound in this title. The photographs are all full colour glossy images, with accompanying captions, describing what is displayed in the images. The first area covered in photographs, shows Iraqi military equipment, captured by the 1st Armoured Division of the British Army during April 1991 in Kuwait. The next area displayed Iraqi military equipment in the Port of Jubail, Saudi Arabia in March and April 1991. One of the aspects of these captured vehicles covered well in this title is the captions that have been spray painted on them by various military units. You can find everything from the unit that captured it, through to a message of love to someone back home that they hope will be seen after being viewed in the media.
Moving on, you get a look at the vehicles in the Dhahran petting zoo in Saudi Arabia. It is then the turn of the Victory display park in Kuwait City, before we move on the theatre of operations images. Those modeller who like to display destroyed vehicles, will enjoy this section, as it show vehicles in various conditions which will give you a visual reference of modern armoured vehicles, and the destruction that can be wrought upon them. This title continues in that vain, and what I found particularly pleasing is that they have even taken the time to cover everything from the mundane support vehicles from a UAZ minivan, to a mobile field kitchen, which I think goes to show that military forces have a sense of humour as regards what they will capture and bring back.
Conclusion
This title from AK Interactive, is a wonderful offering for anybody interested in modern armour, and the effects upon it during conventional warfare. The conflicts in Iraq seem to have gone a little out of favour at the moment. However, this title has the potential to reignite a person’s interest in this sphere of operations, and enabling you to produce something a little different, than a zone of conflict which so often graces the tables at model shows.